


Just Winging It

by FeralCreed



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Brick's POV, Canon Typical Violence, Mordecai definitely has a crush that he is equally incapable of mentioning, also featuring more dumb fic titles, and being awestruck at his wings, honestly this is just Brick having a huge crush on Mordecai, it was really only a matter of time before i did a wingfic tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:33:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28031694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeralCreed/pseuds/FeralCreed
Summary: Brick thinks this just might be the end - but Mordecai has a trick up his sleeve that turns the tide of the battle.
Relationships: Brick/Mordecai (Borderlands), pre-slash anyway - Relationship
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	Just Winging It

**Author's Note:**

> Surprise! Another Morbrick fic from yours truly. Wait, no, that's not the surprise. The surprise is that there's now a Morbrick server on Discord! Click [here](https://discord.gg/5EkUzXvnFy) to join (and right-click and copy the link to invite your friends). You can also reblog [this](https://the-starry-seas.tumblr.com/post/637499202486861824/join-the-morbrick-discord-server) post on tumblr to help spread the word. See you soon!

This all happens because they decided to check the bounty board on what’s supposed to be their day off. One of the jobs is from someone who has a cousin nearby. Said cousin's town has always been plagued by bandits, but the real problem is that Hyperion overtook the town just a couple weeks ago. Why, nobody knows, but they’re terrorizing the inhabitants that weren’t killed trying to escape. Their mission is to kill the soldiers and free the town.

Hearing about what Hyperion is doing makes them all want to help. Being paid is just a very nice bonus. Even though Brick hadn't heard anything about Hyperion before he'd arrived on Pandora, it hadn't taken long for him to dislike them. Pandora has more than its share of psychopaths and problems. The last thing it needs is a corporate army invading and making things worse.

And so they’re here. They're nearly a mile from the town – Mordecai's the only one who can really get a good look at what's happening through his rifle scope. His report is unsettling. There are no civilians out on the streets. Instead the place is crawling with soldiers, in numbers that Mordecai estimates are about three or four times what they were told would be here.

None of them like hearing that. Mordecai swiftly puts his foot down at the idea of proceeding, saying that no job in the world is worth going against an outpost of some sixty or seventy men. Brick doesn't mind having more people to punch, but he isn't going to go in there on his own, and Roland seems to be leaning towards Mordecai's perspective. He isn't sure that Lilith will listen to them, though, if they say it will be better to back down. She doesn't listen to other people very well.

Bandits attacking is a stroke of luck, ironically. They're always crawling all over every corner of Pandora, ready to fight anyone and anything to the death. And apparently, they've taken offense to Hyperion setting up on their turf. The four Vault Hunters are hunkered down behind a rock outcropping, waiting for Mordecai to relay information about what's happening. The report about the bandits is good news.

“We can take advantage of this,” Roland suggests. “Wait for them to tire out fighting each other and then get down there and pick off whoever's left. It's a lot better than going in there and trying to fight them all off by ourselves.”

Lilith and Mordecai look fairly interested by that idea. Brick has to admit, it's a good one. If they tried just rushing in and taking everyone on, well, they'd get killed. Even he knows that. Hyperion is made up of organized professionals. If the men below were all bandits, there's a chance that Roland and Mordecai could be persuaded to fight them, because bandits aren't the sharpest tools in the shed, and some of them will cut and run once they realize they've lost a fight. Hyperion, though, will fight no matter what. Even if they know they're doomed, that just seems to inspire them to try to take more people with them, instead of retreating. They're a lot more dangerous. Brick doesn't like them very much.

“Mordecai, do you think you could find a way up onto that ridge to the west?” Roland asks, pointing up to it. Brick can't help but think that it's a long way to fall if Mordecai's surprised by anyone. The sniper doesn't seem to have any such concerns himself, not that Brick can really read his expression under his mask.

“I can find a way anywhere,” Mordecai says, and spits into the dirt.

“All right, then. Here's the plan. Mordecai will be up on that ridge. He should have a view of all the main streets from there. He'll fire on one of the soldiers patrolling the roof, and that'll be our signal. Lilith, you get to the other side of town, catch any stragglers or anyone that doesn't head right toward the fight. Brick, you're coming with me. We'll head straight in from here, killing everyone at ground level. Mordecai, you keep shooting anyone that's up on the roofs. Once you wipe them out, watch Lilith's back until she works her way back around to us. Then you can shoot whoever you want.”

“Sounds good,” Lilith says, nodding. “Except if we do it that way, we'll be hitting that big new Hyperion building last. You sure about that?”

“Me an' Blood will come help you with that. If they were gonna send out some kind of emergency signal, they woulda done it already. We just gotta kill enough of 'em out here that they don't have enough men to barricade the entrance.”

“Mordecai's right. Hopefully.”

“Hopefully?” Lilith replies, not looking all too hopeful herself.

“We couldn't hit that first even if we wanted to,” Mordecai points out. “There's too many soldiers between us an' it. Might as well step on as many ants as we can before we kick the nest. I'm gonna go set up on that ridge. Get ready.”

He jogs off, only looking up once to make sure that Bloodwing is following him. The other Vault Hunters are capable. Chances are they could make it without their eye in the sky – but they'd have a lot more scars to show for it. It still took them a while to appreciate his contributions. Being a sniper isn't as obvious as setting people on fire or punching their heads off, but he's still saved all of their lives, and more than once.

Brick watches him leave until Roland 'accidentally' elbows him in the side while checking the ammo in his gun. Yeah, Brick's not that subtle. He never has been. When you're as big as he is, people notice you, so it's not really worth trying to hide. And it's a lot easier to just say what he means, when he means it, instead of playing around with half-truths and fake smiles and 'waiting for the right moment'. Just the thought of it sounds exhausting.

Fact is, about the only thing he doesn't speak up about is how he's starting to feel something for Mordecai. Maybe it's just because he doesn't know what exactly it is. He's looked up to people before. Liked people before. Slept with plenty of them. But this is different. He can't really remember ever feeling this blend of want and respect and admiration before, it tends to be one or the other. He's seen Mordecai checking out guys – more than that in several bars and dives – so it's not that he thinks Mordecai's going to be insulted by a man paying him attention. It just... feels... weird. To risk the friendship they've slowly started developing in an attempt to make something more. And he doesn't think that many people have even gotten as far as he has.

Lilith's asking questions about their plan, so he stops thinking about what kind of relationship he has with Mordecai and focuses on the answers. It doesn't really add anything they haven't already discussed. He thinks Lilith might just be trying to spend her time annoying Roland until their signal comes. There's some strange kind of flirting going on between them, and Brick briefly regrets that he was left here to have to listen to it happen.

He checks and double-checks the ammo for his shotgun. Then checks and double-checks that he put it back together the right way after he last cleaned it. It's going to be a rough fight and the last thing he needs is his weapon breaking before they even get started. Of course, he's not going to complain if he gets to be a little more hands-on, but it's a lot more fun when that's a choice instead of a necessity.

With nothing left to do to be ready, he taps his fingers on the stock of his shotgun and watches the fight going on below them. it feels strange to not be running into the middle of it, but Roland says to wait, and he's usually the one to have the best ideas when it comes to plans.

One of the men patrolling the top of the new Hyperion outpost drops his weapon and topples over the edge of the roof.

“There's the signal!” Lilith exclaims.

Brick's already running forward. Roland's close behind him, and out of the corner of his eye, he can see the other man already taking out the turret that he stores on his belt. It's small when it's collapsed, smaller than Brick thought possible. It still shoots well every time. Roland runs straight past several streets full of soldiers, only stopping to throw out the turret when bullets start smacking against their shields. They're at a slightly wider place where two streets meet, giving them plenty of room to stand back to back and take on the horde that rushes toward them. He really hopes Lilith is keeping to her part of the plan.

He's not sure he's ever been in a fight like this. Part of it is the sheer numbers – there's got to be about a hundred men around him – but he doesn't have much experience with three-way battles either. Usually it's just him and some other guy or group trying to beat the shit out of each other. It's a lot simpler than what's going on now.

“We got a problem!” Roland barks. Brick really doesn't want to know, but he turns to look anyway, and immediately regrets it. There are three goliaths rampaging toward them, another two joining as he watches. Great. Just great.

Roland and Brick leave the turret where it is in the road and take off in separate directions. Brick would say he loses sight of Roland quickly, if it weren't for the fact that he's too busy shooting bandits and soldiers to pay any attention whatsoever to where his teammate's gone. When shit goes south like this, there's no time to change old plans or make new ones. He doesn't even really have the chance to see where he's going, he just keeps shooting everyone that tries to kill him and doesn't stop moving. That's the best way to stay alive on Pandora.

And now they have to figure out what to do about those goliaths. Rampaging goliaths won't stop after they've gotten started. And he's not confident that they'll be able to split up the five of them. Even if Mordecai and Bloodwing are at their sides, he doesn't want to see five against four, not when the five are that hard to fight. They've gotta find a way to regroup but there's soldiers everywhere.

“Hey, Brick.” Mordecai's voice sounds amused despite the underlying warbling noise from Brick's now-half-shattered ECHO. “Think you can duck for me?”

What Mordecai expects to do, Brick has no idea, but he trusts him. So he ducks. There's a whooshing noise overhead, air buffeting across his back and shoulders, and then the thump of something heavy landing on the sheet metal roof of the shed he's hiding behind. The sharp, precise sound of a revolver cracks across the bandits' and soldiers' screaming. Roland's yelling over ECHO for Brick to keep his head down. He can't help but look up.

Mordecai's standing there above him, a revolver in each hand. He's firing with machine-like accuracy, every shot a lethal one. His teeth are bared in what might be a grin or a snarl, Brick isn't quite sure. There's an almost artistic splash of blood across his cheek and one lens of his goggles. But none of that is why Brick is staring.

There's wings, two of them, peaking over Mordecai's shoulder and iridescent black in the sun. Brick can't look away. If it wasn't for the fact that all their enemies are now focusing their fire on Mordecai, he'd be riddled with bullets, but they've clearly picked up on who's the bigger threat. He thinks it's a shame that none of them seem capable of realizing just how beautiful Mordecai looks in this moment.

“Blood, let's go!” A shadow warps across the ground as the raptor dives toward the battlefield. Mordecai doesn't stop to check where he is, just crouches down for a moment before he leaps up and off the roof.

Despite having seen the wings on Mordecai's back just moments before, Brick's heart still jumps into his throat at the sight. His instincts are screaming at him to run out and catch Mordecai before he hits the ground. It's hard to think that he doesn't have to, that watching the other man fall isn't going to end in disaster. For a second it feels like Mordecai just floats in the air with a sharp, confident smirk. Then he plummets.

His wings spread out at what's definitely the last second, barely stopping him from crashing facefirst into the dirt, even though his body's momentum still forces him down on one knee. The strong downward beat of his wings creates a burst of wind so strong that it almost feels like a shock wave hits Brick right in the chest. The bandits are falling over themselves to get away. Half of them don't get back to their feet. Brick's never seen a man shoot so quickly.

“'Ey, hermoso, you just gonna sit back and watch me do all the work?”

Mordecai flashes him a quick grin and Brick suddenly realizes that he's just been standing there open-mouthed for almost a full minute. From the barking laugh he hears from Mordecai, as the winged man pivots to shoot at a new wave of bandits, his realization must have been visible. He thinks he feels a blush working up his face.

He hefts up his shotgun and fires at the nearest bandit. There's a steady staccato of turret fire from behind another building, so Roland must still be alive. He doesn't know where Lilith is, but a siren is the last person he's going to be worried about. She'd been eager to come here, anyway. They just hadn't expected whoever had posted the bounty to be unaware of, or lying about, the strength of the soldiers here.

He also hadn't expected Mordecai to have wings, which is considerably more interesting to him. No time to talk about that now. They'd dove headfirst into what had ended up being a lot more work than they'd thought. If it hadn't been for those goliaths, though, he thinks it would have been smooth sailing.

Now that he thinks about it, that was the last time he'd heard anything from Mordecai until he was told to duck almost ten minutes later. There had been a brief but heartfelt curse and then their sniper had gone quiet instead of keeping up his usual trash talking. If it weren't for the steady rain of bullets from his perch – heh, perch – over the past few minutes, Brick would have half thought that Mordecai had left them.

Evidently nothing could be further from the truth. Mordecai's in the thick of things now, Bloodwing wheeling high up above the battlefield before dropping, scarily fast, to rip at some enemy's throat. No wonder Mordecai's never far from the raptor when they're out on a hunt. Bloodwing's a killing machine.

It's starting to get kind of tight, so Brick holsters his shotgun and just resorts to punching the shit out of people that come close enough to him. He laughs, not unlike Mordecai had a moment ago, and catches a flash of a surprisingly bright smile from the other man. Then there's a flaming psycho running right at him, and Brick has to tear his attention from his friends to his enemies.

Still, it's hard to keep from watching Mordecai. The long red scarf wrapped around him is eye-catching, and of course the wings make him a lot more noticeable now. There's a fluidity to him that wasn't there before. He's used to fighting with the aid of flight, Brick realizes. It must have been hell on him to keep his wings hidden and pretend to be as earthbound as the rest of them.

He'd always known that Mordecai was different from the other Vault Hunters. The same way you could tell the difference between a planet and a star in the night sky. But he'd clearly had no idea _why_.

Mordecai takes a running start and kicks a bandit square in the chest, his wings beating and allowing him to regain his feet instead of falling. Bloodwing comes down and picks off someone trying to get Mordecai from behind. The bird swoops back up toward the sun, blood spattering the dirt in his wake. Mordecai doesn't even turn around, just draws his sword and finishes the downed bandit before flicking the blade upwards to block an incoming blow from a Hyperion grunt trying to use his rifle as a melee weapon. He spins, the gun jerks out of the soldier’s grasp by his momentum, and the soldier bats ineffectively at the wings in his face until Mordecai runs him through.

Brick's never seen anything like it. He thought the roles in their little group were so well-defined, he muses as he punches another bandit in the face. Roland is the soldier, equipped for any challenge and with a sharp tactical mind. Brick's their tank, ready to punch anything. Lilith, thanks to her powers, is their wild card and ace in the hole. Mordecai's their sniper (and bird man, though Brick isn't entirely sure that that's really considered a position on the team). Looks like Lilith's going to have to find a different niche to fill... crazy as her powers are, sirens are a known entity. Brick's never seen anything about winged people except for a few old stained glass church windows of angels. And he's pretty sure that angels aren't allowed to swear, or drink, or kill people – all things he's seen Mordecai do in the last couple hours.

Just what is he, then? Busy as they are beating the living hell out of Hyperion jackboots, Brick doesn't think this is the time to ask. Hell, it would probably surprise any of his teammates to say that he had a thousand questions. They've half written him off as kind of quiet and stupid, if he has to guess. Most people do. He's almost convinced himself to not let it bother him by now, even though he'd hoped he could expect more from the three people who have had their lives in his hands for months.

Mordecai will understand that, he thinks. He's had to hide too. How, Brick still doesn't know, but he's becoming more determined to ask by the minute. If they all survive this fight, anyway. There really is an unreasonable number of soldiers in front of them. When it comes down to it, though, the odds aren't all that different from any of the other fights they've had since coming to Pandora. They'll make it.

The last of Hyperion's men are wiped out, and it's not long after that that the bandits scatter back to whatever holes they drove out of. Brick half hopes they're skag dens. It'd serve them right to get chewed on. He doesn't mind bandits, in general, but it's when they start shooting at him that it starts feeling personal. They're a staple of life on this planet, though, so he doesn't think that anyone is going to be doing anything about them any time soon. Certainly not their ragtag group. Although...

His gaze drifts to Mordecai, who's standing with his wings tucked against his back, what can only be described as a fond look on his face as he cleans some viscera out from between his raptor's feathers. Bloodwing is sitting on his wrist, reaching out to nip at his beard or goggles every so often. It's almost hard to believe that the man he's looking at just wiped out dozens of enemies single-handedly.

Maybe their team isn't that ragtag after all. Each one of them is strong on their own. Working together, it seems like there isn't much that can keep them down for long. They just have some trust issues that they have to work out. He's sure that Mordecai isn't the only one keeping secrets. Roland's avoided questions about where he came from and Lilith isn't too chatty either – he'd say she refuses to tell them about her siren powers, but he's pretty sure that she just doesn't know enough to share.

“That was amazing,” he says.

Mordecai's expression turns from warm to neutral before Brick fully realizes it's changed. He shrugs, turning half away from Brick, his wings more hidden from the other man's view now. Bloodwing shifts on his wrist, side-stepping almost up to his elbow before Mordecai reaches up to transfer the raptor to his other hand. There's no sign of that blinding smile that Brick had caught a glimpse of just a few minutes ago. Instead Mordecai looks as closed off and aloof as he did the day they had all been on that bus, right down to the hint of annoyance and disdain that Brick had thought was so integral to his personality.

“Hell of a mask to hide behind.” The words are out before he even realizes he's spoken, and he immediately regrets it, if only because Mordecai quite literally looks ready to murder him. For a second, he's not sure which way it's going to go, but then Mordecai sends Bloodwing off into the air and turns away. In a couple long strides, he's around the corner of a nearby storehouse and out of Brick's line of sight. Brick doesn't try to follow.

Lilith comes limping toward him, bitching about how her shield broke after a close-range shotgun blast from a Hyperion officer. He thinks she might be hamming it up for the concerned Roland following her and sifting through his pack for the Insta-Health vials he'd bought from Zed before they came out here. Brick wonders if Mordecai would have stayed if he hadn't opened his mouth. Would he have talked about his wings? Done whatever he's been doing so far to hide them? Would Brick have been able to un his fingers through those feathers as he learned how they worked? Or would Mordecai be looking at them with thinly disguised fear and apprehension, expecting them to turn on him and call him a freak?

Being whatever Mordecai is has to be a hell of a road. Maybe that's why there's always been distance between them. Why the sniper has always kept them at arm's length. People aren't kind, most of the time, and Brick can only imagine how cruel they'd be to someone so different. Has anyone ever looked at Mordecai in awe and told him he's beautiful? He frowns and kicks a rock, watching it tumble across the dirt until it comes to rest against the toe of a boot.

“You came back,” he says, a wide smile breaking across his face.

Mordecai shrugs one shoulder, a shadow flickering over his face for a moment as Bloodwing wheels overhead. He holds up his sniper rifle for a moment, then slings it over his shoulder, his thumb rubbing against a worn spot on the leather strap. He's nervous, Brick realizes. Doesn't know what kind of reaction to expect. Lilith and Roland are both quiet. He doesn't turn to look at them, just speaks.

“Every part of you is beautiful.”

Mordecai's surprise shows plainly on his face as he rocks back on his heels. For a moment, Brick wonders if he'll deflect with boozy sarcasm, or even walk away after some biting remark. Instead he smiles, that same brilliant smile that Brick had seen in the fight. And Brick smiles back.


End file.
